Baruch Spinoza Philosophy Quotes & Sayings

The superstitious know how to reproach people for their vices better than they know how to teach them virtues, and they strive, not to guide men by reason, but to restrain them by fear, so that they flee the evil rather than love virtues. Such people aim only to make others as wretched as they themselves are, so it is no wonder that they are generally burdensome and hateful to men. — Baruch Spinoza

He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived. — Baruch Spinoza

I call him free who is led solely by reason. — Baruch Spinoza

I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically ... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature ... I shall, therefore, treat the nature and strength of the emotion in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids. — Baruch Spinoza

Minds, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility. — Baruch Spinoza

Love is nothing but Joy with the accompanying idea of an external cause (Ethics, part III, proposition 13, scholium). — Baruch Spinoza

Nothing forbids man to enjoy himself, save grim and gloomy superstition — Baruch Spinoza

The object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body — Baruch Spinoza

Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety. — Baruch Spinoza

The order and connection of ideas in the same as the order and connection of things — Baruch Spinoza

I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy. — Baruch Spinoza

Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens. — Baruch Spinoza

Men, in so far as they live in obedience to reason necessarily do only such things as are necessarily good for human nature, and consequently for each individual man. — Baruch Spinoza

Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge, which inadequate, fragmentary, or confused ideas involve. — Baruch Spinoza

The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men ... — Baruch Spinoza

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. — Baruch Spinoza

It will be said that, although God's law is inscribed in our hearts, Scripture is nevertheless the Word of God, and it is no more permissible to say of Scripture that it is mutilated and contaminated than to say this of God's Word. In reply, I have to say that such objectors are carrying their piety too far, and are turning religion into superstition; indeed, instead of God's Word they are beginning to worship likenesses and images, that is, paper and ink. — Baruch Spinoza

The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure ... you are above everything distressing. — Baruch Spinoza

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. — Baruch Spinoza

Scriptural doctrine contains not abstruse speculation or philosophic reasoning, but very simple matters able to be understood by the most sluggish mind. — Baruch Spinoza

For though men be ignorant, yet they are men — Baruch Spinoza

These are the prejudices which I undertook to notice here. If any others of a similar character remain, they can easily be rectified with a little thought by anyone. — Baruch Spinoza

The purpose of the state is really freedom. — Baruch Spinoza

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. — Baruch Spinoza